Jaguar (novel)

Jaguar is a young adult adventure novel by Roland Smith, first published by Hyperion Books in 1997. It is the sequel to the book Thunder Cave, (also published by Hyperion Books).

Plot summary

Fourteen-year-old Jake is forced to be left to live at a retirement home in Poughkeepsie, New York while his father, Dr. Robert Lansa, travels to help his friend Bill set up a jaguar preserve. Doc, as everyone calls him, takes longer than expected in Brazil and sets up a plane ride for Jake to visit during his Spring Break. When he arrived in [Manaus], Jake met Buzz, the expedition's pilot who is supposed to track jaguars at the preserve. Jake met Doc but was angry with him for not arriving home, not keeping in touch, and not meeting him at the airport. A couple mornings later, Bill is working on the boat they received, and Buzz, Doc, and Jake were heading outside when the boat exploded. This explosion killed Bill, injured Buzz's leg, and injured Doc's arm. At first, the expedition was called off, but Silver, a skipper who lives in his boat nearby, is offering his boat. At first the expedition declines, but they decide that Jake could be the pilot and they could take the boat up the Amazon. Flanna, the expedition's botanist, goes with Doc to Brasilia to get the exploration permit changed. Meanwhile, Buzz teaches Jake how to fly the Morhpho, a small ultralight plane. One night, Jake goes into Silver's boat and while looking at some of Silver's books, he is attacked by a man with a scar on his face and knocked out. Jake keeps this a secret between himself and Silver. When Doc and Flanna return, everyone (Doc, Flanna, Silver, and Jake) get ready for the trip up the Amazon.

Silver was the captain of his boat, the Tito. Silver secretly knows about the man with the scar and encourages everyone to keep a shotgun nearby on the boat. The boat breaks down and they must stop at a village while Silver finds a mechanic there. This is a miserable shantytown with an Indian camp nearby, and a gold mine that has small claims from virtually everyone in the shantytown. Jake sees the man with the scar through binoculars and runs to warn Silver. Soon Jake finds Silver and Doc is worried and finds Jake. Then, Doc learned of a jaguar that comes to the town every night and "vandalizes" the town. There is a betting pool for whoever gets the weight of it right when it is caught. Doc meets with the Indian, Raul, who helps him tranquilize the jaguar under the conditions that he gets to come on the expedition to see it let go and that it gets weighed. Doc agrees and they successfully capture the jaguar, get it weighed, and quickly leave the village. Raul had won the betting pool and donated the money to his camp before he left.

The expedition continued until Silver wanted to go up a tributary that he said might lead to the center of the preserve. Doc, Flanna, and Jake agree not knowing that he would try to look for the Lost Mines of Muribeca. They try to turn around but the reverse control malfunctions so they continue up the narrow tributary. They find a beautiful lake at the end of the tributary and set up camp there. For several weeks, Doc and Raul tagged animals while Flanna studied the plants. Jake tracked the tagged animals using the Morpho. Meanwhile, Silver took trips out into the rain forest by himself and looks for the lost mines. Things are going well until Doc and Raul take a week-long trip into the rain forest and Silver disappears. Doc returned without Raul and is extremely sick with malaria. Jake lands from one of his flights and behind him is Tyler, the man with the scar, and Fred, who threatened Jake and Doc at the shantytown. Tyler held an automatic rifle and tied up Flanna and Jake. Since Doc couldn't move, they left him in the tent. After Fred disobeyed Tyler, he was shot. Tyler asked Jake and Flanna about Silver, but they did not have any information. Jake was able to deceive Tyler after he wanted to know how the tracking equipment worked in order to track down Silver. Jake gave Tyler the frequency for a jaguar's collar and Tyler set out. Doc came and untied Flanna and Jake and Jake flew off to find Silver. He purposely crashed into the canopy and found Silver nearby. Silver talked with Jake and said he found the Lost Mines of Muribeca but did not want to steal from the Indians. They rescued Raul, captured by the isolated Indian camp and they trapped Tyler using the killed jaguar's collar. He fell into a pit and after a brawl with Raul and Jake, Silver had to drop his gun and step back. Jake was ordered to sit down by Silver and was almost killed but Flanna shot Tyler with a compound bow. The night before they would leave the lake and find another place to set up camp, Woolcott, the one who is willing to fund the preserve, along with Buzz, landed in a very nice float able private plane. He accepted the preserve and Jake flew back to Poughkeepsie, New York for a few more weeks of high school and a trip with his grandfather, Taw, to Arizona while Flanna and Doc stayed to run the preserve.